Successive Canadian governments have failed to live up to a commitment given 40 years ago by Prime Minister Pearson to increase our official development assistance (ODA) to O.7% of our GDP.  

Canadians want action on the campaign to Make Poverty History. Last fall, many nationals in 127 countries spoke out to demand a more urgent political response to growing global poverty and inequality.

They called on world leaders to keep the commitments made in the Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015. Governments also promised to end poverty, inequality and hunger, children dying from preventable diseases, to ensure basic education for all children, particularly girls, to stop women dying during pregnancy and childbirth, to provide water and sanitation and to protect the environment.

Among those who took part in 'Stand Up Against Poverty' last fall, about 76,000 were Canadians, who organized more than 500 events in communities, schools and workplaces.

This is an important issue for Canadians, so why don't our politicians act? If any of you here tonight have not yet signed on, please do so at www.makepovertyhistory.ca.

While an increase and redesign of the way in which we provide aid is needed, one area we don't address nearly enough is why successive national governments in Canada have not carried their weight on the diplomatic level. This is equally important as it addresses the crucial link between human dignity/rule of law/democratization and development.

 Rule of law and Democracy

In Africa, as in most regions of the world, the standard of human dignity/rule of law/ democracy in any given country normally defines the standard of living for citizens. The despotism demonstrated by a number of African leaders has done much to harm the lives and dignity of the nationals in their respective countries. Without the freedom to speak out, to protest, and to vote in free and fair elections, citizens are denied forums required by genuinely democratic processes. 

Today, there are a number of countries in Africa, where the basic standard of living continues to plummet as a direct result of conflict, misrule and corruption. Take Zimbabwe, formerly one of the most stable and economically sound countries on the continent, that had one of the highest Human Development Index ratings in sub-Saharan Africa in 1985, and whose population is now almost entirely dependent on food aid. Economic mismanagement has created the worst inflation on earth and catastrophic rates of unemployment, compounded by shortages of basic foodstuffs, fuel and agricultural inputs.

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the most complex and challenging in Africa. Political instability, extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and civil warfare, exacerbated by diamonds and myriad local and international players,  continue to hinder the possibility of peace and sustainable livelihoods.  It's a sign of genuine progress that members of the Congolese community from Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa formed three years ago a Congress of Congolese Canadians (CCC).

Terms of Trade

One major key to success lies in changing the systems of trade that established African economies as exploitable and dependent. What good will more aid do, when on any given day Western leaders can decide they don't want to pay as much for their sugar, rice, or bananas, and lower market prices, devastating entire economies in the developing world. Even assuming the success of the DOHA round of world trade negotiations--a very questionable premise-- according to the World Bank's own figures, it will lead to a mere $3 per year per citizen of the developing world – just less than a cent a day. More accountability and an integrated international approach are needed. This should be based on and driven by the existing human rights agreements that most countries have signed.  

Diplomacy

The Canadian Institute of International Affairs' (CIIA) report of 2005, Making a Difference: External Views on Canada's International Impact noted that since 1989 Canada has made a difference in non-traditional ways: by having produced effective internationalists such as Louise Arbour or Stephen Lewis; by playing an important role in the education of developing countries' leaders; and by providing a successful, distinct socio-economic model.  Unfortunately this period overall is one of decline; Canada's performance has deteriorated in three areas:  diplomacy, development, and security.

Canada's inaction can be characterized as 'diplomatic complacency'. Our diplomats, ministers and MPs continue to meet with, welcome, and have 'constructive engagement' with leaders that condone, and take part in repetitive human rights violations and widespread corruption. This is unacceptable. That we continue to kowtow and trade with such regimes, essentially investing in the same human rights abuses that we are so quick to sign up against in declarations and charters, is hypocritical.

Arguments that stopping trade with regimes guilty of widespread human rights abuses will only hurt their already disenfranchised citizens are inconclusive. There's a wealth of recent studies that provide realistic ways in which countries like Canada could better lever their trade relationship and influence within international organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, and the IMF.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Canadians are demanding higher, more accountable levels of corporate and public governance. In the case of many African countries, there are demands for consensus building, anti-corruption and the restoration of public institutions. One of the goals of every government of Canada should be to find practical ways to create an environment that fosters CSR initiatives among Canadian companies across the world.

As global pressures continue to force companies to think deeply about their societal impact, the implementation of CSR will continue to grow. This basic observation holds the key to creating an environment that is hospitable to change and improvement. One way to ensure CSR is through strategies in which both shareholders and other stakeholders benefit from finding a balance between corporate and community interests. Unfortunately, the record of some Canadian companies doing business in Africa has not been what one would hope. Whether it's environmental activism, consumers exercising their purchasing power to voice concerns over ethically responsible production and trade, or pressure from NGOs and local governments, it is evident that these pressures have changed the nature of the discussion of CSR. It is no longer just a philanthropic, humanist, or environmental debate, but also a discussion of 'win-win' business policies.

Democratization and development

The subject of democratization and development is huge, and I will try to speak to it by focusing on a few key areas, namely accountability, commitment to the human rights charter, and strong support for existing civil society groups and pan-African organisations.  

If we've learned anything from the last 50 or so years of post- and neo-colonialism in Africa, it is that foreign intervention in Africa has done little to calm the instability and civil conflicts established and/or exacerbated by colonial powers. It has in many cases increased dependency and failed to invest in the reconstruction of local systems of government and civil society.

 In York University Professor Pablo Idahosa's words a few years ago, "While there's much vacuous talk of good governance and capacity building, the real issue is the need to operationalize genuine distributive notions of sustainable democracy and of building up welfare, that is, the quality of democracy, which is NOT the same thing as poverty reduction, which is at best a palliative of localism."

Throwing money, often tied money, to superficial, unsustainable projects in countries whose own governments often work to undermine the efforts, and in many cases feed off of aid revenues and manipulate its distribution to further political party or personal agendas must stop among all donor countries.

Why are rights charters not incorporated into development plans, and the linking of rights with responsibilities encouraged, using that as a basis to assess current development programs and trade relations For example, we could be asking what the linkage is between the right to food and Canada's trade policies in food and agriculture, thus assessing the impact of our trade, particularly with the South.

Professor Amartya Sen of Cambridge University has published some brilliant theories. Among them is the 'capability approach' to development, which argues that poverty is maintained when people are denied access to the resources that would allow them to create prosperous and sustainable communities. This is part of a larger, popular discourse to create a more 'free' Africa by liberating it from destructive conditionalities and trade policies.

Supporting, funding, and encouraging African-based solutions is key, as is looking at best practices, both in Africa, and in other areas around the world, for creative solutions. Despite the continuing conflicts in areas of Sudan and the DRC, support for democracy has grown in many areas. Increased freedom of the press and new communications media such as the internet have expanded public access to information, and citizens are now more aware of their basic human rights. According to Freedom House, over the last decade, the number of free democracies in Africa more than doubled from four to 10 and more than half the countries on the continent are in the transition process. The anti-corruption drive in Zambia underscored this trend.

Crisis in Kenya

Almost a month ago, Tegi Obanda, international co-ordinator of the Coalition for Constitutional Reforms Kenya, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) and I called for a number of initiatives in respect of the stolen Presidential election in Kenya, including:

 i) rejecting the December 27 election results for the presidency because, while the casting of ballots was done in an orderly and peaceful manner, the counting of  ballots and transmission of results appears to have failed to meet minimum standards of fairness, accountability and transparency;

ii)Calling for an interim national unity government in Kenya comprised of all elected political parties to establish and adopt a democratic citizen-driven constitution within one year;

iii)Supporting the holding of a new presidential election to be observed by the international community (including Canada) following the adoption of a new democratic constitution;

iv)Offering the assistance of Elections Canada to provide technical advice and support for new elections;

v) Supporting the activation of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAHGG) to assist in restoring stability and democracy in Kenya; and,

vi) Increasing humanitarian assistance for the construction of numerous homes and shelters lost as a result of the post-election violence.

According to Obanda, "The root cause of the problem is the lack of a democratic constitution. Without a new constitution, Kenya is heading towards being another failed state in Africa."  

Last week, the Coalition for Constitutional Reforms Kenya called for the establishment of a provisional interim government in Kenya, whose main aim would be to re-establish law and order, spearhead constitutional reforms and fresh elections.

The reform group added, "In view of the obvious power vacuum in Nairobi amidst the ongoing ethnic murders, it is imperative that an interim government be set up in Kenya immediately." It also called on the international community to mobilize to save Kenyan lives, warning that the signs of imminent genocide are all there.

"The first and most primary task of any government is to protect the lives of all citizens under its jurisdiction There can be no excuse for the murder of Kenyans to continue unless the government is either implicitly involved or lacks the will or capacity or both, to protect lives of citizens."

The negotiations should continue, but the murder of innocent Kenyans must be stopped immediately. The UN has levers which should be applied very firmly in the situation.

Kenyans from all sectors, ethnicities, political persuasion etc should all speak with one voice, and work out modalities for setting up an interim government without further delay. The African Union should lead the way in sending a peacekeeping force to Kenya.

To read the CCR Roadmap for Constitutional Reforms, click: http://www.ccr- kenya.com.

African Security

In the book Peace In Africa: Towards a Collaborative Security Regime, a group of ten mostly African experts compare security arrangements in Latin America and Africa and argue that the Organization of American States (OAS) offers an applicable model for promoting regional security and development in Africa. They argue that because the OAS relies heavily on democracy and trade to promote peace and security, it has succeeded in emphasizing building confidence in its member states. The OAS institutions, created to manage security concerns and member relations, help provide a plan for a collaborative security effort for the continent.

The Security Council of the AU, founded in 2004, has a legal framework for resolving disputes among member states. Following in the disappointing footsteps of the OAUs only five peacekeeping efforts in a 40-year history, the obstacles it faces, whether externally imposed or self-inflicted, are great. A limited mandate, a lack of political will among its members, capacity problems, the lack of financial resources, and the chasms endemic to the international political environment all complicate problems.

The editor of Peace In Africa, Shannon Field, believes the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), as the predecessor to the AU, was harmed by its mandate, which barred interventions in the internal affairs of member states. Because the international community is showing an increasing reluctance to undertake peace operations in Africa, it is all the more important that the 2002 constitution of the AU allowed for interventions in order to ward off large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. Sadly, while Field and others thought interventions by the AU security mechanism would prevent future Rwandas, the current catastrophe in Darfur demonstrates that security remains a central problem for the AU.The role of the AU in promoting regional cooperation and pushing forward economic development is demonstrated by including the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in its framework and taking measures to implement the program as the organization's creed.

Canada should encourage existing regional strategies and partnerships. With the proper investment and management, the AU can become a powerful, cohesive body in Africa, and a voice of peace, security and development in the region.

Democracy cannot be imposed from the top down. Building a stable democracy requires a firm foundation, nurtured from local and regional civil society groups. The desire for democracy in Africa is there, but what is still lacking is a strong apparatus through which democratic values and ideals can be applied. By lending greater support for interactions between Canadian civil society and African counterparts, Canada could make a significant contribution toward strengthening the capabilities of African civil society to institutionalize democracy.

Darfur

Let me close with a brief focus on one of what I believe to be a great failure in Canadian policy on Africa: the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

In Sudan's Darfur province, since April, 2003 an estimated 400,000- 450,000  African civilians have been murdered by bombs, bullets or swords of the Bashir military regime in Khartoum, or died of related causes, such as starvation and disease. The killing, raping and burning pattern in Darfur is essentially the same one used by Khartoum earlier in the Nuba mountains and across South Sudan. 

Consider what Sgt Debbie Bodkin, a police detective with the Waterloo Police Service in Canada, said at a recent conference on Darfur. Bodkin investigated victims in former Yugoslavia in 2000, Chad in 2004, and for the UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur in 2004-2005. She described some of what she heard during her victim interviews for the UN inquiry, including testimony from a 10-year-old Darfuri girl who was gang-raped by the Janjaweed. One especially brave woman in a displaced persons camp came forward and told her that approximately fifty African Darfuri girls and women in her camp alone had been raped. One of the racist insults used by the perpetrators was, "Slave, get out of my country". Bodkin told us that she continues to suffer post-traumatic stress in part because the "killers are still running rampant".

The respected New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, wrote last week in a piece headed " China's Genocide Olympics": "Just a few days ago, Sudan appointed Musa Hilal, a founding leader of the Arab militia known as the janjaweed, to a position in the central government. This is the man who was once quoted as having expressed gratitude for "the necessary weapons and ammunition to exterminate the African tribes in Darfur." 

The government of China is effectively now the master of Sudan's oil development. From the 500,000 barrels of oil produced daily, China imports roughly two thirds.

Kristof again: "The central problem is that in exchange for access to Sudanese oil, Beijing is financing, diplomatically protecting and supplying the arms for the first genocide of the 21st century. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, officially selling $83 million in weapons, aircraft and spare parts to Sudan in 2005, according to Amnesty International USA. That is the latest year for which figures are available. China provided Sudan with A-5 Fantan bomber aircraft, helicopter gunships, and K-8 military training/attack aircraft and light weapons used in Sudan's proxy invasion of Chad last year. China also uses the threat of its veto on the Security Council to block U.N. action against Sudan so that there is a growing risk of a catastrophic humiliation for the U.N. itself."

Asked about the weapons shipments, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu replied, "In conducting arms sales to African, we carefully consider the local area's situation and development model and stick to the spirit of protecting local peace and stability." By "protecting local peace and stability," she was no doubt, as Eric Reeves has noted, "referring to Darfur's millions of displaced persons and hundreds of thousands of war dead".

For the past five years, the party-state in China has run continuous interference for the racist Bashir regime at the U.N. Dependable support from a permanent member of the Security Council allowed Khartoum to defy a host of U.N. demands and continue with what one UN official earlier termed "Rwanda in slow motion".

So why are the African and international communities finding it so difficult to demonstrate effective leadership on the catastrophe in Darfur, let alone a build consensus on the nature of the problem? Despite public concern across this country and much of the world, as well as a series of dire warnings issued by international organizations, it's truly dismaying to see world leaders averting their eyes to allow another Rwanda or Bosnia to take place.

The inaction is not due to lack of information. There have been numerous reports, articles and statements published begging for action. There have also been three books published: Genocide in Darfur, edited by Samuel Totten and Eric Markusen, Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide by Gérard Prunier, and Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal – which expertly pick apart the historical context and current problems in Darfur.

In effect, emphasis on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to bring peace; the recognition of the conflict in Sudan as a 'humanitarian problem' only; fear of sending peacemakers to conflicts in Africa; and continued reliance on 'constructive engagement' strangles the international community's duty to intervene despite the UN Security Council's tardy initiatives.

The approximately one billion of our sisters and brothers who live on the continent of Africa are entitled to the same level of human security from the international community during a crisis as peoples anywhere else. As one Canadian of Sudanese origin put it about the Darfur crisis: "Are Africans not full members of the UN system?" Doesn't the 'Responsibility to Protect' principle apply to every community which is being brutally attacked by agents of their own government? We simply cannot remain silent partners in genocide.

The conflict in Dafur not only calls for international action, it also presents an opportunity for the AU to learn, to build their capacity, and to become a real force in African peacekeeping. Although on the one hand it is understandable – considering such things as the colonial history and the slave trade – that African governments want to solve African problems, when so many human lives are at stake, must the world not be called into action? Today, it is possible to place thousands of peacekeepers anywhere in the world within days; it is possible to share experience, expertise and equipment; and it is possible to end large-scale atrocities such as Darfur's. But the will has to exist first.

Conclusion

I think the new year and our probable national election during it offer an excellent opportunity to create this will in our politicians. Let's make Africa and Darfur an election issue. The Make Poverty History campaign has between 300 and 1,500 people signed up on their site in every riding across Canada. Let's use meetings like this to try and get every man and woman running to incorporate the will of Canadians here into their platforms. So write letters, send emails, make phone calls – let's not let another four years go by without something being done.

Debate about aid to Africa, debt relief and poverty are drawing much media coverage; from pop-culture forums, such as the Live 8, to political ones like the G8. We've heard from Bono, Bob Geldof and Tony Blair. Overnight, much of the Western World has become vocal about the fact that most 906 million Africans still live in extreme poverty. Sadly, the only voices we don't seem to be hearing enough of are those of Africans.

One wonders, for example, what debt reduction will mean to a Rwandan trying to feed her children and heal the scars of her country's horrific past? Will an aid increase to 0.7% of GNP change the life of Darfurians living under terror in squalid refugee camps?  How are Africans responding to the recent surge of attention and 'generosity'? And how do any of these measures tackle the greater, more complex and unpalatable problems with the West's relationship with Africa, such as inequitable trade and peacekeeping?

As we all know, the challenges that much of Africa faces today in democracy and development are great.  So are the challenges many of us here face; as politicians, policy makers, and promoters of democracy, to try to find ways in which Canada can have a more meaningful, coherent, integrated, and in some cases a more constructively critical interaction with African governments, in the hopes that our foreign policy begins to show more transparency and reflects our commitments to human rights, fair trade and peacekeeping.